California drives off as nation’s auto theft capital

In a near-sweep that California won’t be celebrating, nine metropolitan areas in the state ranked among the nation’s top 10 spots for auto theft.

That’s according to a new report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which ranked the Central Valley communities of Bakersfield, Fresno and Modesto as the country’s leading places for stolen cars per capita in 2013 — followed closely by San Francisco.

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An Oakland police officer watches a car being towed. The vehicle had its four wheels stolen. (Kat Wade, The Chronicle)

The San Francisco area, which includes the East Bay and Peninsula, had a theft rate of 649 cars for every 100,000 residents, the report shows. That compares to No. 1 Bakersfield’s 725 cars per 100,000 residents.

The Vallejo/Fairfield area and San Jose area also represented the Bay Area in the report’s top 10 list.

“California has been a clear leader in auto theft ever since there were four wheels on a platform,” said Frank Scafidi, spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

This year, though, was the biggest for the Golden State. The Spokane area in Washington was the only community outside California to garner a top listing in the report. The report evaluated data from the National Crime Information Center.

The reasons behind California’s prolific car boosting, according to Scafidi, are numerous — from the sheer number of cars in the state to moderate weather that adds life to popular older vehicles to the proximity to ports that ship stolen vehicles abroad.

One bit of good news is that the number of thefts nationwide fell in 2013, a finding consistent with data released earlier this week by the California Highway Patrol. That data showed auto theft down 2 percent in California.

The top places for auto theft (followed by the number of cars stolen per 100,000 residents):